


Evil But Not Heartless

by nerdfighter721



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 11:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3172268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdfighter721/pseuds/nerdfighter721
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John ran away from home, but after getting a text from an unknown number, he starts to rethink his decisions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evil But Not Heartless

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Evil But Not Heartless  
> Characters: John Donaldson  
> Prompt: Family  
> Word Count: 1,675  
> Rating: K  
> Notes: (Slight swearing ahead.) John ran away from home, but after getting a text from an unknown number, he starts to rethink his decisions.

**Evil But Not Heartless**

John spent a long time avoiding his phone. He got text messages, emails, phone calls, even a video asking for him to communicate with them… to make sure that he wasn’t dead. Obviously, he wasn’t dead, just away from everyone who knew him. He kept up with all three channels just to watch everything that was unfolding, from the looks of it, he was probably the only one who did this.

Everything was going according to plan until Cora mentioned Hero missing school and an ambulance being outside of her house the other day. Beatrice declined that she was actually dead in her video – just really ill. Either way, it was bad enough for John to finally sit down and film a video explaining everything.

As he was typing out the description, he added in an afterthought that he still wouldn’t be coming back to Hero’s funeral-type thing. Also, he told Cora to stop constantly texting him – it had started to get rather annoying. Really, John didn’t think that he was going to ever go back to the group. He still would rather not see his _perfect_ brother.

It wasn’t until three weeks later from him uploading his video on Benedick’s channel before he even thought that maybe he should come back home.

John was sitting in the room that he was using as his own when his phone suddenly lit up. Usually, he ignored it, because it was usually his dad, Ann, or Pedro – none of which he wanted to talk to. Today, however, it was an unknown number. John, curious, viewed the text message and was stunned.

**Text Message:** John, this is Balthazar Jones. I got your number from Pedro’s phone. He doesn’t know that I’m writing you and I will not tell him that I am. Pedro is devastated that you are gone; while you may not care about this at all, I do. He will talk nonstop about how much he hopes that you are okay and wants you to come home soon. I’ve seen your video and understand that you may not want to see him, but it will be for the sake of everyone involved. I would also like to show you this video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2XFr7lPISw> which was uploaded today. Please watch until the end. We are all getting together on the 12th at half noon, organized by Ursula. You are invited. If nothing else, come just so we know you’re okay. So your brother will smile again.

John hadn’t checked to see if anyone had uploaded for about a week now so he wasn’t surprised that there was a video. What surprised him most was that Balthazar reached out to him. Of course, he knew Balthazar – he had come ‘round more than a few times to hang out with Pedro. It was just a countdown to when the two would start going out – he already knew about his brother being bi, and anyone with eyes knew that Balthazar liked Pedro. Still, John and Balthazar hardly talked, so why would he take it upon himself to ask for him to come back?

Running his hands through his rather messy hair, he clicked on the link to see Hero and Claudio. It started off with Claudio looking at Hero, “Why are we making this again?”

“To explain to everyone that I am alive and well and… just what’s been going on.” Hero told him.

John watched the video through, at about the halfway point, he wondered why Balthazar asked him to watch this video specifically. That was, until he heard, “No one’s seen him in a really long time and people are getting really worried, _especially_ Pedro. So John, umm, if you see this… let us know if you’re okay. Come back.” The look on Hero’s face – it was an expression that he couldn’t really explain. It was almost as though she was _worried_ about him, which she shouldn’t be after what he did to her – well, after what his _plan_ had done to her.

Granted, it didn’t admit her into the hospital like he had previous thought, but he did almost understand why she played along like she had been ill. John completely understood the want for people to understand and listen. A small piece of him may even be doing exactly what she was doing. Only, he ran away and posted a video.

His phone lit up with another text from Balthazar, only this time, it was an address of where they were meeting at. Nothing else.

Over the next four days, John thought about coming back. Why he should. Why he shouldn’t. What it would mean if he came back. By the 11th, something just struck him and caused him to want to go. He thought about the chance to apologize to Hero. He still wasn’t sure about his brother, but he needed to try and fix what he did. After being away for so long, he did begin to realize that what he did needed amending in whatever way he could.

 

He knew that he was going to be a little late as he checked the time on his phone. It was already an hour after Balthazar had told him it was going to start. Still, he took a breath as he walked over the small hill and quickly caught sight of a large group of people, eating, talking, and laughing. Beatrice was the first one to see him, she nudged his brother and he looked up. Quickly standing up and running over to him.

The sight of his brother so close to him, he couldn’t help but flinch, thinking that Pedro was going to hit him, but then he was pulled into a hug – which was returned to Pedro a moment later.

“You’re alive. You. Are. _Alive._ ” Pedro sounded more relieved than John ever would have thought that he could have. Sure, he had been texting John telling him how he hoped he was okay and safe, but John never thought that it went more than just text messages and occasional voice messages. “I’m so sorry John. For all the shit I put you through.”

“I had a big part of a lot of that, Pedro.” John said quietly.

The two of them eventually started to walk back to the group, Balthazar smiled when he saw John, “Glad you came.” He said as John sat down to his left – Pedro was on his right.

Everyone was just so relieved to see John; they added him into the group right away, offering him food and conversations that no one would probably remember tomorrow. Once in a while, he would catch sight of the camera that Ursula was filming on, but he tried to ignore it most of the time. The two year nines there would look at John a few times, but they said nothing.

When the conversation pulled away from him, John stood up and walked around the circle of friends to Hero. He leaned down and whispered, “Can I talk to you?”

“Yeah.” Hero said, standing up and walked a bit away from the group.

There was a beat of awkward silence before John finally spoke up, “I’m sorry for what I did to you, Hero. I watched through all of the videos and couldn’t believe that I did that to you.”

“I’m glad that you know what you did was wrong.” Hero told him, “That’s all I could ask. Like I’ve told everyone else, I just want to put this behind all of us.”

“I have no idea how you can do that. What I did – I _never_ thought about what might actually happen to you. I was too focused on-”

Hero nodded, “I know, John. I saw the video. It’s just… your intentions weren’t to hurt me. If anything, you should have this talk with Pedro. He’s more needing of it.” She looked back at the group for a moment then back to John, “I’m willing to just put everything that happened in the past. I know that you know what you did was completely wrong and I can only hope that maybe we can just forget this. At least you and I.”

To John, Hero was not even a person. She was too kind to be. He had heard a lot about her, he had a vague sense of who she was, but he didn’t really know her. This, though. How forgiving she was. He could almost not believe it.

Giving the slightest of smiles, Hero put her hand on John’s arm, “Just try and fix things with your family. They all really care about you.”

“I know. Thank you for this, Hero.” John responded.

Hero just nodded, “Come on, let’s get back to everyone.”

The two of them walked back and John felt a little bit better for the rest of the time. He watched as his brother and Balthazar behaved with each other, silently trying to decide if they were already dating or not. Everyone else’s eyes were on Beatrice and Benedick the whole time, so no one took much notice to the clear flirting that Balthazar and Pedro were doing.

He ended up leaving early, saying that he should probably get his things back from where he had been staying at. Pedro stopped him right before everyone piled into the cars since they were all going to a different location anyway.

“You will be coming home, right?” Pedro asked, sounding worried.

“Yes, I’ll be coming home. I will see you there tonight.” John responded, “Are dad and Ann home?”

Pedro shook his head, “They starting looking for you in another city. I just wrote them telling them that you came back.”

The two year nines car pulled up at that moment and they waved goodbye and got into the car. John looked over at his brother, “I’ll be back.” He promised.

Pedro surprised him with another hug, “Please.” He said.

John took off back to where he was staying and packed his stuff, preparing himself for seeing his dad and Ann again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> That was my first attempt at writing John. I'm also not sure I like the title, but I couldn't think of anything better before I posted it.


End file.
